Best dishes countdown #16: Sandwiches at Lowry Hill Meats

If you're anything short of philosophical about a sandwich, then you don't deserve to eat one. Whether it's tuna fish on white or a hubcap-sized New Orleans muffuletta from Central Grocery, there is a way to do a sandwich right, and then there is everything else.

Lowry Hill Meats knows this. Because they are craftspeople, they know a thing is not worth doing if the raw materials are outsourced. They oversee the care and quality of the craft while the meat is still on four legs (sorry) and continue this command until the moment your sandwich hits your hot little hand.

The sandwich varietals are many, and though simple, are usually things of gravitas: meat, bread, and butter, maybe a swipe of high-end cheese. They're built upon sturdy Rustica bakery bread, so be sure to bring your jaw-unhinging wrench for things like crimson roast beef layered an inch thick, or melting pork shoulder on focaccia. The weekend is egg sandwich time (on an English muffin, the way God intended).

They often offer a daily special too, something with more swagger, like knee-buckling BBQ with white bread to absorb sauce like a sponge, or a slab of meatloaf the size of a fist, piled with caramelized onions.